The Black Sea Fleet launched exercises to repel an attack by saboteurs from the sea. According to the Ministry of Defense, about a thousand personnel, more than ten ships and support vessels, as well as Mi-8 and Ka-27PS helicopters will be involved in the exercises.
These maneuvers will be very different from those familiar to the eye. Since the main action takes place under water, no external effects can be observed. Nevertheless, the development of counter-sabotage actions is a constant component of the training and combat process and is carried out all year round.
What do you need to have from the equipment and what needs to be worked out in order to secure the ships and bases?
The most obvious, but far from the easiest way to deal with enemy combat swimmers is to train your own swimmers.
Back in the Soviet Union, work began on the creation of special detachments of fighters trained to operate under water. The reason was the explosion on the battleship "Novorossiysk" on October 29, 1955 in Sevastopol, when 829 Soviet sailors were killed.
The commission to investigate the tragedy did not give an unambiguous answer about the reasons for the death of the battleship, but according to one of the versions, veterans of the Italian 10th flotilla of the "black prince" Valerio Borghese, who successfully carried out such operations during the war at the Mediterranean bases of Great Britain, were involved in the explosion.
To counteract naval saboteurs in our time, a complex of special weapons was created that made it possible to conduct hostilities under water.
Specialists of "TSNIITOCHMASH" have developed a special underwater assault rifle (APS) - a unique weapon of its kind capable of conducting automatic fire in an underwater and air environment.
Combat swimmers guarding bases and coastal facilities must be able to use such weapons and meet enemy saboteurs with bursts of long needle-shaped bullets, which were specially designed for operations under water.
The same principle was used to create an underwater pistol of an original design, similar to the modern non-lethal traumatic agent "Wasp". I fired a pistol with the same needles.
But a constant underwater watch of combat swimmers is not the most effective way to deal with enemy saboteurs. It is clear that people cannot stay in the water for a long time, in addition, in bad weather and storms, the effectiveness of swimmers decreases. And the active movement of ships in the water area of naval bases also does not contribute to the safe stay of swimmers in the depths.
Therefore, an arsenal of technical means is used to combat possible penetration into ports.
One of the simplest, but quite effective ones, is network barriers. Steel nets can interfere with anything underwater, from mini-submarines to underwater scooters or guided torpedoes. However, for well-trained combat swimmers, overcoming network obstacles is not a problem.
The most important problem in the protection of important objects is the extreme difficulty of detecting saboteurs on the way. As a rule, combat swimmers use closed-loop breathing apparatus for breathing, which do not give a unmasking effect in the form of gas bubbles coming out to the surface.
Since it can be difficult to accurately determine the location of saboteurs under water, a tool has been developed that allows you to work across areas.
Special anti-sabotage grenade launcher DP-64 "Nepryadva", which exists in portable and easel versions. The device fires small grenades, the principle of which is similar to depth charges - they explode as soon as they reach a certain depth. Thus, when there is a threat of an attack from under the water, the water area of naval bases begins to be densely covered with such bombs, capable of hitting all living things within a radius of ten meters.
In addition, acoustic mines are a very effective anti-sabotage tool. These are special acoustic stations that generate sound pulses of a special frequency. It is known that water is a much better conductor of sound than air, therefore, if you wish, you can arrange such a "concert" that saboteurs will have no choice but to surface and surrender. And no more or less effective protection against acoustic shock under water has not yet been invented.
They also use high-tech devices, mini-sonars, which are installed on the approaches to the water area of ports and piers where ships are based. Small acoustic stations should detect sounds that a person makes when moving underwater, right up to heartbeats.
However, if such an alarm is triggered, a check is required to make sure that these are indeed enemy combat swimmers, and not a similar object of marine fauna. But, as a rule, modern saboteurs use underwater vehicles, underwater scooters, the presence of which is much easier to detect.
There are projects to attract unmanned underwater vehicles to patrol the water areas of the bases, but all these numerous projects are still at the stage of experimental work and are still far from their actual use.
Thus, the main burden of work to protect against saboteurs still falls on the shoulders of those who are on guard duty both above the water and below its surface. That, in fact, is the main goal of the teachings that have begun. Moreover, we have a place to wait for unkind guests.
